Chapter 23 - Box Clever

In my absence from writing this blog, my thoughts have been about my dear Vee Dub, and of course when my thoughts are on my Van, normally my bank account takes a hammering.

After much research,  I had decided to go with RJES bellhousing conversion, as well as one of his special input shafts that allow me to use a Subaru clutch. Also in this picture is the new thrust bearing carrier arm (more about that later) as well as the bracket to mount my new slave cylinder for our hydraulic clutch.

For the record, my missus flipped when she came in while i was taking this picture, as apparently the kitchen is not for my car parts!

First thing i did was strip the original bell-housing off while the box was in the engine bay, and check that my new one would fit my gearbox (as i wasn't sure which gearbox i had as there are many different boxes fitted to these vans, turns out mines a type 091, 3 rib model. If you look closely at the input shaft where it attaches to the inside of the gearbox, you can just see the reverse gear. There is a cir-clip on the input shaft, and you must slide the cog back as far as you can on the input shaft, then unwind it as it's screwed in.

I found the best method was to stand the box up like this, and rotate the diff to a position which gives the must clearance to the cog your trying to lift out the way. (other box types have a access hatch on the side that can be removed and make this a lot easier or so ive been told)

Here you can see the completed job, with the new bell housing fitted, also notice the thrust bearing shaft that Richard gave me, which is a prototype of a new product he's developing, which was really lucky for me as my original that was supposed to get sent to him for adjustments to make it work with my new set up broke due to my heavy handedness

Originals are supposed to look like this.... Notice the missing arm? we were trying to remove the arm the cable attaches to (on a cable operated clutch system), gently with a hammer, and as you can see i don't recommend this

In fact, if your going to do this conversion, save yourself the hassle and the time, and just ask Richard at RJES, for one of his, and get in touch with VW herritage for the other part to the arm (they are currently building me one in Germany, and intend to start stocking them for other busy Vee Dub Modders :D

I'd just like to say the quality of this kit is awesome, if you look closely you can see the level of detail thats gone into this bellhousing and the development time spent is obvious

with the new input shaft in place, it was time to fit the new spiggot bearing (some people call them pilot bearings)

Here you can see the larger spiggot bearing fitted to the flywheel (the hole in the middle) I find its easier to remove the flywheel from the motor, place it over two blocks of wood, and knock the bearing out from behind, then to struggle trying to remove it insitu. then to refit, use a little bit of copper grease on the outside of the bearing, then i used a socket of similar size as a drift to knock it back in (please note it wasn't flush when i removed the old one, so i returned the new one to the same position)

With the clutch stripped, its a good time to examine the clutch itself and replace it if its looking worse for wear. Although mine possibly had a couple of thousand miles left in, i felt it was better to replace it now, and save me having to yank the motor back out a few weeks after its was on the road, however, on close examination it looks like the clutch had had too many burnouts etc, and the was some warping on the clutch cover, and in this shot, you can see the left hand clutch and its segments,and the right hand one is smooth.

I've spoken to a few local lads with scoobys, and they say, unless i'm running big power, that Exedy make really decent clutches, so i splashed out on a complete kit.They're also made in Japan, and are O.E. on a lot of High end Jap cars.

All i needed to do was line it all up and rebuild it,

A good tip, if you don't have a clutch alignment tool (and you've already put your input shaft in the gearbox, like i had) try taking a deep well socket, and find one that's a snug fit in the spigot bearing, then find a shallow socket, that's a snug fit in the clutch centre, pop the two together, and hey presto, a clutch alignment tool!



Works for me!

As you can see its all coming together nicely.

Stay tuned, i'll soon have it fitted in the van and looking all cosy!